Senators push for stem-cell bill

ValBrickates Kennedy

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- The day after the House of Representatives voted to restore funding for a highly controversial area of stem-cell research, a bipartisan coalition of senators has called for an immediate vote on the bill in the Senate.

On Wednesday, Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Penn.; Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Dianne Feinstein, D-Cal.; Gordon Smith, R-Ore.; and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., jointly announced that they had sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., urging that the Senate be allowed to immediately vote on the bill without amendment.

The bill, formally known as the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, was passed 238 to 194 by the House on Tuesday evening. The measure allows for federal funds to be made available to stem-cell research programs that use embryos donated by couples through fertility clinics.

'We should not use public money to support the further destruction of human life.'
President Bush

The Bush administration greatly restricted funding for such research in 2001, arguing that it encouraged the destruction of human embryos. President Bush passionately reaffirmed his opposition to the bill on Tuesday, calling it "a great mistake."

"In August 2001, I set forward a policy to advance stem-cell research in a responsible way by funding research on stem-cell lines derived only from embryos that had already been destroyed," Bush said Tuesday. "This policy set a clear standard: We should not use public money to support the further destruction of human life."

According to Frist's office, the majority leader plans to discuss the matter with the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican.

"No decisions have been made as of yet," said Frist spokesman Nick Smith on Wednesday.

The Bush administration has said the president would veto the bill in its current form. The veto would be Bush's first in his nearly five years as president.

Currently, federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research is restricted to projects that only use cells derived from specific embryos that were destroyed before 2001. Researchers have argued that the bulk of those cellular lines have since become contaminated by culturing agents that use animal cells, creating a pressing need for more embryos.

Stem cells are primitive cells that are able to differentiate themselves into the various cells that make up the human body. Stem cells can be most readily found in days-old embryos, bone marrow and umbilical-cord blood. In particular, scientists have been experimenting on embryonic stem cells in an attempt to better understand how cells differentiate.

Stem-cell researchers have also been seeking ways to use stem cells to replace damaged cells within the body. Many researchers believe stem cells could hold the key to effectively treating such devastating conditions as paralysis due to spinal-cord injury, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and diabetes.

In their letter to Frist, the senators said scientists needed access additional embryos in order to move forward with their research.

"It is now clear that these lines, all of which are contaminated with mouse feeder cells, will never be sufficient to realize the full potential of stem cell research," read the letter. "Our nation's top scientists agree: The current federal policy is delaying progress toward cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases and health conditions that affect millions of Americans."

The senators also asserted the bill would put in place ethical standards for such research, much of which has been regulated by individual states up until this point.

'Our nation's top scientists agree: The current federal policy is delaying progress toward cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases and health conditions that affect millions of Americans.'
Letter from bipartisan Senate group to Majority Leader Bill Frist

In a separate statement, Hatch said that it was possible to be both pro-life and for embryonic-stem-cell research.

"I know, as a long-standing pro-life senator, that it is possible to be both anti-abortion and pro-embryonic-stem-cell research. I am pleased that many right-to-life congressmen reached the same conclusion when the House voted yesterday," said Hatch. "I believe that the United States must lead the world to help establish the moral and ethical safeguards that allows embryonic-stem-cell research to go forward in the interest of mankind."

Other pro-life conservatives vehemently disagreed.

"I have conveyed to Senate leadership that we must do everything we can procedurally to stop unethical embryonic-stem-cell research in the Senate, and I will work to do just that. We simply should not go down the road of using taxpayer dollars to kill young humans," Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas said Wednesday.

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